All you need is Light, Luminous monism

All you need is light (DALL·E)

In this blog I want to show through some quotes how what started as a lamp or light metaphor ended up in a doctrine of proudly assumed Luminous monism. The doctrine of Buddha nature, passing from non-self to a “Great Self” or “Luminous Self”, and the doctrine of non-duality (devoid of subject and object) served as bridge. The doctrine of non-duality initially led to the union of emptiness and clarity (yuganaddha, etc.), and in the end “emptiness” (a metaphor itself) was outshone by sheer Luminosity or "Light" and the "unity" became Luminous monism.

In Luminous monism, Light (“pure Awareness” for the more philosophically inclined) is devoid of subject and object and therefore “non-dual”. The strawman “Emptiness” became a simple lower reality of Light in order to rule over the domain (gocara) of reason, logic and causality. Whatever experience is produced in mind, “mundane or sublime”, “is and can only be an expression of this light of awareness”. Why deal with such a limited level of reality and not settle for the ultimate authority, plugging one's luminous nucleus directly into Light itself, or into its earthly nexuses and outlets (so above, so below), and getting the full whack of spiritual awakening, energy, power, immortality etc., with a rainbow body as a bonus (see below).

The “Luminous Self” present/immanent in every human body, translated in yoga (reintegration) language, is an immortal “luminous nucleus”, that essentially remains unchanged in all its “intermediate processes”, participating in the great Divine Light (Nous). Its “ luminous manifestations” (Logos) are both those of the “luminous nucleus” and the great Divine Light, directly connected. Whatever may seem like separations in the Light is due to residual distorted appearances (t. ’khrul snang) that prevent one from accessing the “final holistic vision” (Dowman). One's terminal needs further cleaning.

“In the Secret Cycle, The Totally Radiant Seminal Nucleus (Thig le kun gsal) has another fourfold typology that substitutes meditation for dying: (i) natural intermediate process (rang bzhin bar do), (ii) intermediate process of contemplation (ting nge ’dzin gyi bar do), (iii) intermediate process of reality’s radiant light (chos nyid ’od gsal bar do), and (iv) intermediate process of rebirth (srid pa bar do).

The discussion clearly points to a Seminal Heart-like scheme: the intermediate process of reality is defined as the cessation of distorted appearances (’khrul snang) followed by luminous manifestation of one’s own primordial gnosis for up to five days. It also has a discussion of light channels in the body, a characteristic of Seminal Heart texts that is bound up with the internal illumination of buddha-nature that shines externally in the postmortem visions.” The Funerary Transformation of the Great Perfection (Rdzogs chen) (2005), David Germano

Whatever the axiomatic Buddhist claims (four seals, non-self, emptiness) and the justification thereof Tibetan esoteric Buddhism advances to invoke the Buddhist pedigree of their doctrines, the fact remains that a post-mortem Self (or “Totally Radiant Seminal Nucleus”) and a post-mortem “luminous manifestation of [its] own primordial gnosis” point into another and conventional religious direction. Especially in the case of a post-mortem Luminous body with “light channels” and “light seeds” (t. thig le, Dowman). The “Totally Radiant Seminal Nucleus” is what used to be dharmadhātu in Trekcho language, here in Keith Dowman’s book (see below) 'the sole all-inclusive megapixel' (t. thig le nyag gcig).

The author of the above mentioned article, David Germano, was very enthusiastic about the “luminous” English translation of the “Thig le kun gsal” by Keith Dowman.

“This evocative translation for the first time brings into luminous English one of the most important and influential of Great Perfection tantras. We owe a great debt to Keith Dowman for his painstaking and yet creative rendering to bring this text and its world across great distances into intimate reach of a contemporary international readership.” -David Germano, U. of Virginia

The title of Dowman’s English translation is “Everything is light : the great explanatory Dzogchen tantra Thig le kun gsal chen po'i rgyud : the circle of total illumination”, English translation published by Keith Dowman in 2017, Dzogchen Now! Books. Keith Dowman explains the choice of the title in his introduction. Some excerpts.

“The meaning of this book's title implies that everything we know directly is awareness in the now and, in that sense, awareness is 'light' - the very cognizant light that is conscious experience, and constitutes inseparable knowing and the knowable. All phenomena in sensory perception are 'light'. The entire pantheon of buddha being is composed of light. Dzogchen is the vehicle of light - light is both the source and the manifestation. Such is the Dzogchen view, which provides recognition of present awareness in the now and recognition of nondual initiatory experience at the beginning, and constitutes the final achievement of the rainbow body at the end. The existential realization of this truth is not immediately accessible in the first and second turnings of the wheel of the buddha-dharma; it is only in the final turning, and particularly in the Nyingma tantras, that it is overtly expressed.”

“The belief in Buddha and the Bodhisattvas taught by the lamas, like that in Jesus Christ and the Saints taught by the priests, belongs to the little ones, karmically deleted from the list of players in the cosmic lottery that has rainbow body as the prize.”

“With that understanding, the rudimentary spiritual practice of buddhist cultural training consisting of provisional views and practices that mimic human growth from infant to adult may be severed from the radically different full-bodied mystical insight of Dzogchen. With such insight, the definitive revelation of Dzogchen, a final holistic vision, becomes identical to the universal human experience of nonduality. Since all our experience is comprehended as light, light is the only reality and 'Everything is Light' is, therefore, the seminal message.”

Luminous monism

“This entire tantra can be effectively described as a series of visions, and visionary experience can only be composed of light. We understand, here, first and foremost, that 'light' is the light of awareness of both source and manifestation nondual - regardless of whether what is manifested is mundane or sublime, regardless of whether it appears 'inside' or 'outside', regardless of whether the experience is of this bardo of life or any other bardo. As such, all experience in the immediate now is and can only be an expression of this light of awareness. In that nondual sense is everything light. Consequently, all experience is 'nondual' insofar as the light of awareness has rendered experience conscious and knowledge knowable. It has always been nondual and cannot be anything else. No union of separate 'light of awareness' on the one hand and 'experience' on the other can occur.

Everything is light and everything is a sublime vision of Vairochana's buddha-mandala.”

Without the last reminder, one could think that “All you need is Light”. It is all we need and already allegedly have. Yet, in spite of lovely peak experiences and visionary experiences of “light seeds”, etc., gradually evolving into full-fledged buddha-mandalas and pure lands, one could still regress... And even after one’s Light, no longer a nucleus, irreversibly reached the “final holistic vision” of the Great Light, “knowing and the knowable” will still be required to communicate with the “players in the cosmic lottery” left out in the dark, still entrapped in their distorted appearances. How can we distinguish those with a “final holistic vision” from those who are still entrapped in “knowing and the knowable”? I am afraid we can not. Those with holistic vision sometimes treat dismissively those who don't have it. That could possibly be a clue.

Jean-Luc Achard also reminds overly enthusiastic Luminististas: 

“As Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche has said numerous times in his teachings: «The natural state is itself perfect but the practitioner is not.» This means that the practitioner has to improve his own condition in order to reach a threshold of authentic realization from which he will not regress.” (Jean-Luc Achard, The View of sPyi ti Yoga).